9 ms·

Social network features are such a 2015 me-too fad feature anyway. What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain.

by nikanj 6y ago

tzs 6y ago
Before adding the newest fad features, maybe the should go back and add old fads that they missed. One big fad from 50+ years ago that I'd welcome is folders. I don't want to just have all my repositories appear in a flat list ordered by time since last update. I want to make folders so I can organize repositories by topic--just like I have my repositories organized in my computer.
- kerng 6y ago
  The modern version is tags, but they lack good sorting/viewing for tags
  - raxxorrax 6y ago
    Not wanting to start a discussion about graphs vs trees for organizing, but in my opinion simple folders are great to fulfill basic needs. I cannot imagine a book having no table of contents and just a list of tags with numbers indicating relevant page numbers. That is just dumbing yourself down in favor of machine classification or search algorithms while a simple solution exists for this problem for higher order classification and context, which tags alone fail to provide, even with sorting.
    - 6510 6y ago
      With limited entries of text or code you can just have them all on one page. Slightly more requires a folder or category system. If you have even more you need tags you should also keep the categories (everything must sit in a single category), If you have even more you need categories, tags and search. Trying to use one of those for the wrong volume just creates clutter.
    - rytis 6y ago
      Depends on a book type I suppose. Most have "index" section, which is just a list of tags. In recipe books I find it more useful than ToC actually.
      - 6510 6y ago
        Al entry should go in a single category, chapter or folder. The index should provide a useful overview. Tags you may have in any amount. More is usually better. A tag with a single entry is useful. Chapters should never have a single entry.
      - l72 6y ago
        I think it depends on your goal. If I want to browse new chicken recipes, I am going to open the table of contents, find the section on poultry and start flipping through recipes. On the other hand, if I want to cook a chicken curry, I am going to go to the index and look up curry, then find the relevant page. Folders are great for when you don't know what you want and just want to browse or explore based on broad topics. Tags/indexes are better when you know basically what you want, and you just need a way to find it or items similar to it.
  - prepend 6y ago
    It’s surprising to me that they don’t just do a folder based view using tags and relationships among tags. I don’t like being restricted to single folders, but I’d love to symlink projects into multiple folders. This would work out well if they just added some graph functionality among tags.
- throwaway8941 6y ago
  JFYI, they have those in gitlab. Here's an example. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org
  - melenaos 6y ago
    Ye, bit its not GitHub ;)
    - Grimm1 6y ago
      Exactly ;)
      - smcg 6y ago
        not everyone gets a choice in tools...
        Grimm1 6y ago
        but many do.
- threeseed 6y ago
  My favourite fad of the last few decades is: sorting. You know because in Github you can't even sort your list of repositories.
  - 6510 6y ago
    HTML cant even sort
    - Wingy 6y ago
      JS can though, so can Ruby.
      - 6510 6y ago
        It doesn't belong there in my view. We started out not knowing what anything should look like, we didn't even know what computers were suppose to do. Everything had to be envisioned and implemented. Different approaches were taken for a lot of things. Eventually we just know how something should work. At that point it can be abstracted away. Similarly lots of things should stay in JS. If we've experimented and evolved to the point where we know how something should work we should grow beyond modules and have build in methods for it. It is happening but much to slow in my opinion. Say, we have a Date API, are week numbers a thing or not? Are they an unpredictable poorly understood thing? Does it bother anyone if the API supports it? Everything should be able to migrate up and down from the metal to the highest level of abstraction depending on how much we use it. edit: There is no point shipping [table] sort magic to the client on every page view that needs it.
        chipotle_coyote 6y ago
        It seems like you're simultaneously saying "sorting doesn't belong as a language function in JavaScript" and "we shouldn't ship a sorting routine to the client," which seems...odd. If the page view needs sorting, then isn't that the use case where we can most say that there is, in fact, a point to "shipping sort magic to the client"? (Also, you can do an HTML table sort in about 10 pretty short lines of code[1], so this seems like a kind of weird hill to die on.) [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14267781/sorting-html-table-with-javascript#14268260 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14267781/sorting-html-ta...
- atq2119 6y ago
  This so much. Another pet peeve of mine: GitHub is terrible for the workflow that Git was originally designed for. Specifically, the issue that there's no good way to review patch series. The key here is presenting a series of patches as a whole, but allowing reviews on individual commits of the series.
  - infinitezest 6y ago
    Assuming that we're talking about the same thing, this is possible in GH from the `Files` tab on the PR screen.
    - u801e 6y ago
      Not really. You cannot comment on the commit message itself. And, if I'm not mistaken, changes made in one commit that are undone in a subsequent commit won't show up even if the files view if filtered by commit. Also, it's difficult to tell which comment is associated with which commit.
      - conradludgate 6y ago
        I don't think I ever factor in commit messages into my code reviews. I may look at the commit history if I want to see how they experimented implementing the feature, but I only care about the end goal and the code I will be merging in at the end.
        u801e 6y ago
        The issue is that Github actually discourages reviewing by commit because it makes it difficult to do so. Though there are those who are only interested in the overall diff, there are others who want to be able to maintain a clean and informative history via version control. When the review system makes it difficult to ensure that's the case, then then version control history cannot be maintained.
        atq2119 6y ago
- mbeex 6y ago
  So, something like https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/ https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/ ? But this is gitlab.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  I’ve recently switched from GitLab to Github enterprise due to a job switch. I am shocked at how bad Github enterprise is to navigate. It seems like I regularly have to depend on the search function to find the repo I want.
- kreddor 6y ago
  I agree completely. I miss folders for YouTube subscriptions as well. It seems folders are on the way out in most modern tools and apps.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
kreetx 6y ago
I would like end-to-end encrypted repositories even they can't read - like keybase!
- prepend 6y ago
  Thats possible now, right. If they supported it more I’m not sure how much value over just encrypting blobs. I wouldn’t trust github’s clients or servers to do it for me.
  - kreetx 6y ago
    Keybase's remote helper (which does the crypto) is open-source, so if github did something similar you wouldn't need to trust them. That's the value of e2ee -- you don't need to trust the intermediaries, whether they start misbehaving, are forced to hand over data, get hacked, etc.
jspash 6y ago
And a monorail!
- bregma 6y ago
  And my axe.
fxtentacle 6y ago
Yay! There's one thing I would absolutely love about having a blockchain in GitHub: The transfer fees. If everyone had to pay $1 to submit an issue and/or a pull request, open source projects would get a lot less "support spam" :) Also, it would certainly help if people need to wait 10 minutes for their last comment to be accepted into the network before they're allowed to comment again.
- chrisan 6y ago
  > If everyone had to pay $1 to submit an issue and/or a pull request, open source projects would get a lot less "support spam" :) I dunno, that seems odd. Do you not want to know about bugs in your project to make it better? I realize people will submit a bug b/c they can't figure out how to implement something but that is worth being aware of real bugs in the code. Now if you could "tax" the "+1" spam culture, I'd be all aboard that
  - conradludgate 6y ago
    Do people still do that? How long has it been since they added reactions?
    - chrisan 6y ago
      Not only do I still see it but I ALSO see the thumbs up comment instead of just clicking the thumbs up reaction /cries
amelius 6y ago
They should add cross referencing (click on a symbol and jump to the definition, even if it is in a different repo).
- anthonybullard 6y ago
  This is actually coming online already. I don't remember what languages support it, but it's not very many. This blog post seems to indicate Python, Ruby, and Go: https://github.blog/changelog/2019-11-13-code-navigation-is-now-available-for-all-go-python-and-ruby-repositories/ https://github.blog/changelog/2019-11-13-code-navigation-is-... I'm sure that will increase over time.
tempodox 6y ago
Also, did they rewrite in Rust already?
gruez 6y ago
>maybe blockchain. but git is already a blockchain. each commit is a "block", with a reference back to the previous commit.
- ravenstine 6y ago
  There was this one guy, whom was a cryptocurrency fanatic but not a developer, who tried to convince me to get involved in a "blockchain code database for developers". I told him that Git uses a blockchain, and he simply couldn't accept that a blockchain has been used for years on something that isn't cool or possible to monetize. It's pretty funny how people still think that a blockchain is this magical thing, yet I'm pretty sure anyone on HN is capable of writing a blockchain in an an hour or two. Maybe even less than that.
  - prepend 6y ago
    I have a funny story about how I told a colleague who was really into blockchain how I had updated our project to use a blockchain. I demo’d github and described the distributed features with pull requests and stuff “oracle-based mediation.” It was funny because this was maybe 3 years ago and had never heard about GitHub but had read all the blockchain literature.
  - spixy 6y ago
    That reminds me how people wanted Wikipedia move to blockchain: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1226868636020805632 https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1226868636020805632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22296659 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22296659
ravenstine 6y ago
Don't forget to write monoliths, have monorepos, only use PostgreSQL for all database needs, and use Kubernetes even when you don't need it.
untog 6y ago
> What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain. So they should add 2018 me-too fad features?

Social network features are such a 2015 me-too fad feature anyway. What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain.

by nikanj 6y ago

Social network features are such a 2015 me-too fad feature anyway. What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain.

tzs 6y ago

Before adding the newest fad features, maybe the should go back and add old fads that they missed. One big fad from 50+ years ago that I'd welcome is folders. I don't want to just have all my repositories appear in a flat list ordered by time since last update. I want to make folders so I can organize repositories by topic--just like I have my repositories organized in my computer.

kerng 6y ago
The modern version is tags, but they lack good sorting/viewing for tags
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  Not wanting to start a discussion about graphs vs trees for organizing, but in my opinion simple folders are great to fulfill basic needs. I cannot imagine a book having no table of contents and just a list of tags with numbers indicating relevant page numbers. That is just dumbing yourself down in favor of machine classification or search algorithms while a simple solution exists for this problem for higher order classification and context, which tags alone fail to provide, even with sorting.
  - 6510 6y ago
    With limited entries of text or code you can just have them all on one page. Slightly more requires a folder or category system. If you have even more you need tags you should also keep the categories (everything must sit in a single category), If you have even more you need categories, tags and search. Trying to use one of those for the wrong volume just creates clutter.
  - rytis 6y ago
    Depends on a book type I suppose. Most have "index" section, which is just a list of tags. In recipe books I find it more useful than ToC actually.
    - 6510 6y ago
      Al entry should go in a single category, chapter or folder. The index should provide a useful overview. Tags you may have in any amount. More is usually better. A tag with a single entry is useful. Chapters should never have a single entry.
    - l72 6y ago
      I think it depends on your goal. If I want to browse new chicken recipes, I am going to open the table of contents, find the section on poultry and start flipping through recipes. On the other hand, if I want to cook a chicken curry, I am going to go to the index and look up curry, then find the relevant page. Folders are great for when you don't know what you want and just want to browse or explore based on broad topics. Tags/indexes are better when you know basically what you want, and you just need a way to find it or items similar to it.
- prepend 6y ago
  It’s surprising to me that they don’t just do a folder based view using tags and relationships among tags. I don’t like being restricted to single folders, but I’d love to symlink projects into multiple folders. This would work out well if they just added some graph functionality among tags.
throwaway8941 6y ago
JFYI, they have those in gitlab. Here's an example. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org
- melenaos 6y ago
  Ye, bit its not GitHub ;)
  - Grimm1 6y ago
    Exactly ;)
    - smcg 6y ago
      not everyone gets a choice in tools...
      - Grimm1 6y ago
        but many do.
threeseed 6y ago
My favourite fad of the last few decades is: sorting. You know because in Github you can't even sort your list of repositories.
- 6510 6y ago
  HTML cant even sort
  - Wingy 6y ago
    JS can though, so can Ruby.
    - 6510 6y ago
      It doesn't belong there in my view. We started out not knowing what anything should look like, we didn't even know what computers were suppose to do. Everything had to be envisioned and implemented. Different approaches were taken for a lot of things. Eventually we just know how something should work. At that point it can be abstracted away. Similarly lots of things should stay in JS. If we've experimented and evolved to the point where we know how something should work we should grow beyond modules and have build in methods for it. It is happening but much to slow in my opinion. Say, we have a Date API, are week numbers a thing or not? Are they an unpredictable poorly understood thing? Does it bother anyone if the API supports it? Everything should be able to migrate up and down from the metal to the highest level of abstraction depending on how much we use it. edit: There is no point shipping [table] sort magic to the client on every page view that needs it.
      - chipotle_coyote 6y ago
        It seems like you're simultaneously saying "sorting doesn't belong as a language function in JavaScript" and "we shouldn't ship a sorting routine to the client," which seems...odd. If the page view needs sorting, then isn't that the use case where we can most say that there is, in fact, a point to "shipping sort magic to the client"? (Also, you can do an HTML table sort in about 10 pretty short lines of code[1], so this seems like a kind of weird hill to die on.) [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14267781/sorting-html-table-with-javascript#14268260 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14267781/sorting-html-ta...
atq2119 6y ago
This so much. Another pet peeve of mine: GitHub is terrible for the workflow that Git was originally designed for. Specifically, the issue that there's no good way to review patch series. The key here is presenting a series of patches as a whole, but allowing reviews on individual commits of the series.
- infinitezest 6y ago
  Assuming that we're talking about the same thing, this is possible in GH from the `Files` tab on the PR screen.
  - u801e 6y ago
    Not really. You cannot comment on the commit message itself. And, if I'm not mistaken, changes made in one commit that are undone in a subsequent commit won't show up even if the files view if filtered by commit. Also, it's difficult to tell which comment is associated with which commit.
    - conradludgate 6y ago
      I don't think I ever factor in commit messages into my code reviews. I may look at the commit history if I want to see how they experimented implementing the feature, but I only care about the end goal and the code I will be merging in at the end.
      - u801e 6y ago
        The issue is that Github actually discourages reviewing by commit because it makes it difficult to do so. Though there are those who are only interested in the overall diff, there are others who want to be able to maintain a clean and informative history via version control. When the review system makes it difficult to ensure that's the case, then then version control history cannot be maintained.
        atq2119 6y ago
mbeex 6y ago
So, something like https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/ https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/ ? But this is gitlab.
ashtonkem 6y ago
I’ve recently switched from GitLab to Github enterprise due to a job switch. I am shocked at how bad Github enterprise is to navigate. It seems like I regularly have to depend on the search function to find the repo I want.
kreddor 6y ago
I agree completely. I miss folders for YouTube subscriptions as well. It seems folders are on the way out in most modern tools and apps.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

kreetx 6y ago

I would like end-to-end encrypted repositories even they can't read - like keybase!

prepend 6y ago
Thats possible now, right. If they supported it more I’m not sure how much value over just encrypting blobs. I wouldn’t trust github’s clients or servers to do it for me.
- kreetx 6y ago
  Keybase's remote helper (which does the crypto) is open-source, so if github did something similar you wouldn't need to trust them. That's the value of e2ee -- you don't need to trust the intermediaries, whether they start misbehaving, are forced to hand over data, get hacked, etc.

jspash 6y ago

And a monorail!

bregma 6y ago
And my axe.

fxtentacle 6y ago

Yay! There's one thing I would absolutely love about having a blockchain in GitHub: The transfer fees. If everyone had to pay $1 to submit an issue and/or a pull request, open source projects would get a lot less "support spam" :) Also, it would certainly help if people need to wait 10 minutes for their last comment to be accepted into the network before they're allowed to comment again.

chrisan 6y ago
> If everyone had to pay $1 to submit an issue and/or a pull request, open source projects would get a lot less "support spam" :) I dunno, that seems odd. Do you not want to know about bugs in your project to make it better? I realize people will submit a bug b/c they can't figure out how to implement something but that is worth being aware of real bugs in the code. Now if you could "tax" the "+1" spam culture, I'd be all aboard that
- conradludgate 6y ago
  Do people still do that? How long has it been since they added reactions?
  - chrisan 6y ago
    Not only do I still see it but I ALSO see the thumbs up comment instead of just clicking the thumbs up reaction /cries

amelius 6y ago

They should add cross referencing (click on a symbol and jump to the definition, even if it is in a different repo).

anthonybullard 6y ago
This is actually coming online already. I don't remember what languages support it, but it's not very many. This blog post seems to indicate Python, Ruby, and Go: https://github.blog/changelog/2019-11-13-code-navigation-is-now-available-for-all-go-python-and-ruby-repositories/ https://github.blog/changelog/2019-11-13-code-navigation-is-... I'm sure that will increase over time.

tempodox 6y ago

Also, did they rewrite in Rust already?

gruez 6y ago

>maybe blockchain. but git is already a blockchain. each commit is a "block", with a reference back to the previous commit.

ravenstine 6y ago
There was this one guy, whom was a cryptocurrency fanatic but not a developer, who tried to convince me to get involved in a "blockchain code database for developers". I told him that Git uses a blockchain, and he simply couldn't accept that a blockchain has been used for years on something that isn't cool or possible to monetize. It's pretty funny how people still think that a blockchain is this magical thing, yet I'm pretty sure anyone on HN is capable of writing a blockchain in an an hour or two. Maybe even less than that.
- prepend 6y ago
  I have a funny story about how I told a colleague who was really into blockchain how I had updated our project to use a blockchain. I demo’d github and described the distributed features with pull requests and stuff “oracle-based mediation.” It was funny because this was maybe 3 years ago and had never heard about GitHub but had read all the blockchain literature.
- spixy 6y ago
  That reminds me how people wanted Wikipedia move to blockchain: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1226868636020805632 https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1226868636020805632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22296659 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22296659

ravenstine 6y ago

Don't forget to write monoliths, have monorepos, only use PostgreSQL for all database needs, and use Kubernetes even when you don't need it.

untog 6y ago

> What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain. So they should add 2018 me-too fad features?